Banana a day keeps smoking habit away

IN 1979 I was on 60 a day. I’d tried several times to give up, but failed. Then three things happened to me in quick succession. I had not been to a doctor since moving to Dorset in 1975, but I went to see the one with whom I was registered because I wasn’t feeling up to scratch.

‘Do you smoke?’ he asked. I admitted I did and he asked rather sternly: ‘How many?’ I lied: ‘20 to 25 a day.’ ‘25 a day!’ he exclaimed. ‘You’re going to die.’ I came away convinced I should give up.

Next I bumped into an old colleague whom I’d not seen for years. I offered him a cigarette.

He refused, saying he’d given up. ‘But you were on 100 a day! How did you manage to pack it in?’ I asked.

He told me it was easy and explained how to do it, but I scoffed at his method. A few days later in my local, I asked for my customary pint of best and 20 Marlboro, laying £1 on the bar, expecting a few coppers change.

The landlord told me the price of cigarettes had gone up so a pint and 20 fags was now £1.03.

That was it for me. When you can’t buy a pint and 20 cigarettes for less than £1, something has to go. I was determined to pack it in.

I decided to try my old colleague’s method, and it worked! After three days I’d lost the desire to smoke.

I have never had a single puff in the past 41 years, in which time a pint and 20 fags has gone up to £17.

What you do is eat and drink nothing but fruit and fruit juice for three days. No water, tea or coffee, no alcohol, no snacks.

It not only worked for me, but also for many people I have told.

It’s supposed to be a Mormon method used to get new members off the habit as they ban tobacco and alcohol, but I can’t vouch for that.

The other bonus is that within days of giving up I realised just how disgusting smokers smell, which I had not noticed while addicted myself.

David Gilby, Shaftesbury, Dorset.